Line in the Sand
by Goddess33
Summary: Gaara must discover who is behind a mysterious attack, before he loses Neji forever. Sequel to Sand in your Shorts.
1. Chapter 1

Neji counted five of them. For the most part they kept their distance, using the heavy boulders that cluttered the narrow canyon as cover. It was hard to keep track of all of their movements- the dense rocky surrounds managed to impair even Neji's superior byakugan- but it was not hard to tell he was surrounded.

This had started as a simple training exercise for Neji's three young students. His students- bright and eager to please Nori, shy and silent Keichi, and the ever cynical Umi- had been out here with Neji for a little over a week. It was a good spot for training, one Neji had used frequently since his move to Suna. There was a small oasis nearby that provided fresh water. The bottom of the rocky canyon was good for practice maneuvers, and good for setting up ambushes. What Neji had not planned for was to encounter an _actual_ ambush.

The five assailants all wore hoods, and covered their faces with cloth masks to hide their identities. Even their eyes were hidden, behind dark tinted shades, to protect their eyes from the bright desert sun, muted though it was at the canyon bottom. They'd said nothing since their appearance, but there was little doubt to their hostile intention. Having to defend against intermittent onslaught of kunai and other projectile weaponry proved that quite well.

Neji held his position, Nori, Keichi and Umi in formation beside him. Neji spared a glance for his students; aside from being scratched and a little bruised, they seemed to be holding their own against attack. Though Keichi was crying, very slightly; this was his first time defending against a real attack. It confirmed one of Neji's earlier suspicions when he started working with this group of students. Though he had the right moves, Keichi really was too gentle in nature to be an effective shinobi. Neji just hoped it wasn't about to get the boy killed.

Though the unknown attackers had them surrounded and effectively cut off all avenues of escape, none of them attempted a direct confrontation. Neji was loath to launch an attack of his own, which would leave his students vulnerable to attack from the other. They had the training, but not the experience. Fighting mock-battles and fighting for your life were two very different things.

Neji didn't know who these attackers were, or what they could possibly want with attacking him and his students out of the blue like this. And though they had the little group effectively trapped, they did not approach any closer. It was easy enough to fend off the thrown kunai, but Neji had a feeling the projectile weapons were a mere stalling tactic. It was like the assailants were waiting for something.

It happened when the wind changed. The wind in the deserts of Suna was a constant, inescapable force. Neji was used to it now, and hardly even noticed it. The wind had been whisking through the canyon steadily, but now it was coming to a lull, easing up.

Another hail of projectiles rained down on the trapped team, and again Neji batted them away with his own kunai like so much detritus. As his weapon connected with one projectile, he realized a moment too late it was not a kunai. His blade punctured the thrown pouch, and as it burst, it released a cloud of fine white particles.

The sudden burst of powder in his face made Neji cough, and he waved a hand through the cloud to make it dissipate. The powder had gotten into his eyes, and his vision blurred and warped. His eyes began to burn with a fierce pain. He had inhaled the insidious powder as well, and his throat, nose and lungs were ablaze with fiery agony. His throat was closing, and he couldn't breathe. He coughed harder, spasmodically.

He could hear Nori, Keichi and Umi calling his name, their voices high and panicked. Neji tried to say something, anything, but he couldn't get any air to form the words. The world was taking on a dark gray cast, shapes and shadows blurring into one another, until there was nothing but a smear of darkness. His vision failed, and his lungs felt like they were full of fire. His head was getting woozy, and he couldn't maintain his balance. Neji fell to the ground, coughing smatters of blood onto the rocky soil. With no strength left, unable to get any air, Neji finally gave in to the call of unconsciousness.

The three young students didn't even have enough time to panic, now facing the five assailants without the protection and aid of their teacher. A hail of smoke bombs was tossed into the tiny clearing from behind protective cover, exploding into clouds of noxious fog. It lasted but a moment before the wind swept it away, but it was long enough for the sleeping gas to take down all three children.

At last the five emerged from their hiding places. Three gathered up the sleeping young shinobi, carrying them off. The two remaining regarded Neji. One knelt beside him, almost tenderly wiping the flecks of blood of Neji's lips. A dose of liquid from a bottle of water washed the worst of the insidious powder from Neji's mouth.

"Will you be long?" asked the fifth, watching his partner minister to the prone shinobi.

"You go on ahead," replied the other, not taking his eyes from Neji. "I just need… a little something." He gathered back Neji's long hair, slicing the length of it off with the swift stroke of a kunai. Neji's hair now hung barely past his shoulders. "Just a little parting gift, until next we meet, Neji Hyuuga. I'll be seeing you again, very soon."

_x.x.x_

Gaara lay on Neji's side of the bed, breathing in the last lingering remnants of Neji's scent. No one would expect Gaara to get up for another few hours yet; whenever Neji was gone for missions or training, the Kazekage would stay abed for hours later than usual. Gaara knew, realistically, that it was futile to wish for Neji to be here with him at all times. Neji had his own duties to attend to, just as Gaara had his. Still, it was always hard for Gaara to let him go.

"_It's a shame Neji isn't a girl,"_ Shukaku spoke up inside Gaara's mind.

"Why is that?" Gaara muttered, his voice muffled in Neji's pillow.

"_Girls can be kept in a near-constant state of pregnancy and child-rearing,"_ the demon said reasonably. _"Neji would be too encumbered to ever leave."_

"You're lucky I don't plan on telling him that," Gaara said. "He'd probably never speak to you again."

That shut Shukaku up, as Gaara had expected it to. Aside from Gaara, Neji was the only person to really recognize Shukaku as a real being, even going so far as to have the occasional conversation with the demon, with Gaara relating Shukaku's comments. Even after all these years, Shukaku still pretended not to care about the Hyuuga, but Gaara knew better. Shukaku exhibited its best behavior for Neji, and was fiercely protective of him. Shukaku, in its own demonic way, cared for Neji as much as Gaara did, he was certain.

Gaara took in another breath of Neji's fading scent, letting out with a sigh. He really missed him.

"_Alright, enough,"_ Shukaku finally griped. _"You've been moping every chance you got for a week. You're Kazekage; get up and go do something official. Do paperwork. Make up some laws. Delegate. Anything! I can't take any more of this angst. It's been nonstop ever since he left!"_

"You'd get more breaks from it if you'd ever let me sleep," Gaara pointed out.

"_Nah. You'd probably even angst in your dreams."_

Gaara said nothing to that, but did finally rouse himself out of the bed. Only Shukaku's complaining kept Gaara from lingering too long over the other objects in the room that brought to mind memories of Neji; Neji's clothing folded neatly next to Gaara's, or the photograph of the both of them that Temari had taken, the frame sitting in a place on honor on the nightstand. The tiny jar of sand Gaara had given Neji was conspicuously absent from its place beside the photograph; Neji always took it with him when he went on missions.

When he was dressed for the day, Gaara's attention turned to the gourd, sitting as it always did next to Gaara's side of the bed. The sand rushed in its container in low, mournful tones. The sand had its own form of personality, a sort of animal consciousness, mirroring and magnifying Gaara's own base emotions. Right now, the sand grieved for Neji. The sand always did have a way of being very melodramatic.

Gaara gathered up the gourd, patting it consolingly as he left his room. The training would only last another week, and then Neji would be home. Until then, Gaara would keep himself busy, to keep himself from thinking (_"Moping,"_ Shukaku corrected) too much.

He didn't get as far as his office, however. He found Kankuro pacing, obviously agitated, at the bottom of the staircase. Any of Suna's jounin had permission to enter the Kazekage's home to inform him if there was an emergency requiring his attention. However, Gaara found that on these rare occasions, one of his siblings was elected for the job of delivering him the news. Apparently, the Suna shinobi expected Gaara to slay the messenger, and figured Temari or Kankuro were more likely to survive his wrath.

Gaara's siblings usually took it in stride. They were used to Gaara, and were not afraid of his glares or temper in the way that the villagers still were. It was very unusual to find Kankuro so agitated over delivering a message. Kankuro all but cringed when he saw Gaara descending the stairs. Gaara was instantly alert, the sand tensing for battle in its gourd. Something bad had happened.

"Now Gaara," Kankuro said, "don't freak out."

Both of Gaara's two imagined worst-case-scenarios began with Kankuro saying those exact words. Since there was no sound of battle outside, Gaara guessed that the village was not being destroyed. That left worst-case-scenario number two, which ended with the discovery of Neji's mangled corpse.

"Where is he?" Gaara demanded sharply.

Kankuro didn't even have to ask which "he" Gaara was referring to. "At the hospital, but-"

Gaara didn't hear the rest of what Kankuro said; he was already off and running.

It was still morning and not yet too hot out, and the streets were full of people going about their morning errands. On a good day, even the densest crowds still made room for Gaara to pass through. But on days like this, when Gaara was obviously feeling a little unhinged, with his sand spilling out carelessly from the gourd and trailing behind him as he ran like a miniature sandstorm, the streets all but emptied. There was no way even the toughest shinobi was willing to get in the way of that.

Gaara didn't even notice the way the villagers ran to avoid him. He didn't notice the flurries of sand he was causing, or even the way Shukaku was snarling and thrashing against the bonds that held it. None of that mattered nearly so much as getting to the hospital as quickly as possible. He had to see Neji. Had to see what condition Neji was in. To see if he was dead.

"Don't be dead," Gaara said, unaware even that he spoke aloud. "Please don't be dead."

There were several jounin waiting in the lobby of the hospital, brave souls who attempted to speak with their Kazekage the moment he ran in. Gaara ignored all of them, the sand sweeping them out of his way as he ran to the little reception desk.

"Which room?" Gaara demanded of the receptionist attending the station.

A credit to her position, the receptionist didn't even flinch at Gaara's tone. "Room 213," came her immediate answer. "And you don't have to run!" she called after him, but he was already racing for the nearest flight of stairs.

What little shreds rationality Gaara managed to maintain reasoned that it was a good sign that Neji was in a room on the second floor of the hospital. The intensive care units were on the first floor, and the morgue was in the basement. So whatever had happened to Neji, he was going to be alright.

Logic did little to quell the panic, however, and he did not stop running until he reached Neji's hospital room.

There was a nurse standing outside of Neji's room, holding a clipboard, clearly waiting for Gaara to arrive. Gaara forced himself to stop, to calm down. The sand slowly collected around him, pouring back into the gourd as he settled himself. He couldn't just barge into the room, without knowing what to expect.

Shukaku was still growling in his head, ready to unleash all forms of demonic fury on whoever had caused Neji harm, and anyone else that happened to get in the way at the moment, for that matter. It took a great deal of willpower to ignore all the demon's instincts to cause a bloodbath. Luckily, Gaara had had a lot of practice.

"What happened?" Gaara asked the nurse. "How is he?"

"While out training in the canyons with his students, there was an ambush by five unknown assailants. In the battle, Neji ended up inhaling some form of astringent, which damaged his throat and lungs and finally rendered him unconscious. We've managed to clean most of it out, and he's doing okay now. The damage to his throat and lungs should heal without scarring. He's awake now; you can go in and talk to him. Just don't make him talk too long. His throat is still sore."

Gaara reached for the door handle, but paused before opening the door. "There's something else, isn't there? Something you haven't told me."

The nurse sighed, then nodded. "Whatever Neji was hit with, damaged his eyes as well. We won't know how badly they're damaged until we've given them some time to try and heal. Even if he does regain his sight, it's possible that he'll never use his byakugan again. It's too soon to tell one way or another."

Gaara considered that in silence, then opened the door and stepped inside the room without further comment to the nurse.

Neji was sitting up in his hospital bed, face toward the window as though looking out at the view. But he had a bandage wrapped over his eyes, reminiscent of a blindfold. His dark hair had been cut short as well, by one slice from a very sharp blade, by the look of it. It barely brushed Neji's shoulders now. Insult, added to injury.

Neji turned his head toward Gaara when he heard the door open. Gaara walked toward him but said nothing, taking a seat in the single chair beside Neji's bed. Neji seemed to be considering for the briefest moment, analyzing the sound of the footstep, the smell of sand and heat and the faintest aura of demon, before smiling faintly and relaxing.

"I'm glad you came, Gaara," Neji said, accurately concluding the identity of his visitor. He spoke softly and slow, his voice a little rough from the injury to his throat. "Though I'd have preferred to come home under better circumstances than these."

Gaara reached out to take Neji's hand from where it rested on the bedcover, assuring himself through touch that Neji was here with him, alive if not unhurt. "Let me kill them for you. Let me unleash the demon on them. I want them paralyzed with fear before I rip out their hearts and crush them. I'll string their entrails from one end of the desert to the other for the buzzards to pick at."

Neji let out a soft laugh, though it ended on a rough cough. "You always did say the sweetest things." The humor was gone quickly, though, and Neji's expression was solemn. "They found only me in the canyon. No trace of my students. They haven't come home, have they?"

"I haven't seen them," Gaara admitted. "But I came straight here. It's possible they've been found by now." Alive, hopefully.

"Temari said she'd organize teams to search for them," Neji said. "They're just children. I don't know why anyone would kidnap them. Of course, I don't know why we were attacked in the first place."

"They are valuable as hostages because they have value to you," Gaara said. "These five that attacked you, they brought a weapon that would particularly subdue your byakugan, one of your most powerful weapons. When you were down, they cut your hair. Whoever orchestrated this, it seems as though they were after you, specifically." The thought of someone targeting and harming Neji gave Gaara a peculiarly sick feeling, not to mention the urge to rend said someone limb from limb. Shukaku's increased snarling did not help matters.

"Why would they be after me?" Neji wondered aloud. "And if they were, why blind me, take the children, and just _leave_ me there?"

"I don't know," Gaara said. "I may let them answer that question, before I kill them." The sand hummed eagerly inside the gourd, then spilled out from its confinement in a steady stream. Thick ribbons of sand drifted to Neji, nudging affectionately at his hand resting on the bedspread.

Neji smiled at the feel of the sand's loving touch, and he combed his fingers through the accumulation of grainy particles. The sand shivered, looping loosely around Neji's arms; the sand's version of an embrace.

"We missed you," Gaara said, speaking for himself, the sand, even Shukaku. They were weak words, unable to properly convey the desperate emptiness they felt when Neji was away, the sleepless nights spent staring at uncaring stars and hoping that wherever Neji was, he was safe. But Gaara had never needed to try and articulate those feelings; Neji had always been good at understanding the things Gaara didn't say.

"I missed you, too," Neji said. There was a lot more unsaid behind those few simple words, speaking of lonely nights under an unfeeling desert moon, far from home, and the desire to come back and be with the one he loved, where he belonged. Neji never put those emotions into words, but he'd never had to; Gaara was pretty good at understanding the things Neji didn't say, too.

There was a timid knock at the door. The sand reared back with a hiss, flaring protectively around Neji and Gaara, tense and apprehensive. Gaara didn't think anyone that would knock so nervously would pose much of a threat, but with Neji injured, the sand was on edge, expecting attack at any moment. Gaara did not bother to soothe it; the sand's hair trigger was the very thing that kept Gaara alive through his childhood. Gaara had hoped that time of violence was past, but it may be that those instincts would yet be needed.

When Gaara gave them permission to enter, the door opened just wide enough to allow a clearly nervous chuunin to slip into the room. Gaara recognized him vaguely, though he'd never bothered to remember the kid's name. The boy was tall but scrawny, with perpetually rumpled dirt brown hair, and clothes that always looked like he'd slept in them for days.

"A message came for you, Lord Kazekage," the boy blurted, holding out a scroll, his eyes fixed firmly on the ground. "It was marked urgent. I was told to bring it here."

Gaara let the sands reach out and take the scroll from the boy's hand. The chuunin held very still as the sand surrounded him, circling him slowly as if examining him thoroughly to determine if he was a threat. The boy was clearly very uncomfortable to be in the room with the Kazekage and his sands, so Gaara dismissed him. The chuunin didn't run from the room, though he looked as though he wanted to.

"A little jumpy, don't you think?" Neji commented once the boy was gone.

Gaara smiled, untying the cord wrapped around the scroll. "Even without sight, you could tell that, could you?"

"I could practically hear him break into a nervous sweat," Neji said. "And he breathes too loudly. He wouldn't be my first choice for missions requiring stealth."

"I'll mention that to his team leader, when I see them…" Gaara murmured as he unrolled the scroll. The thought was quickly forgotten, though, as he began to read.

"_Dear Kazekage," _the letter began. _"Though originally I intended to address this letter to Neji Hyuuga, it would be a wasted effort, since by this point he wouldn't be able to read it. It was a shame to blind those pretty eyes, but it was necessary. You've tricked Neji into thinking he loves you, but deep in his heart, he knows you're a monster. It falls to me to show him this, to show him his true feelings. When you're gone, when everything Neji knows and cares for is gone, he'll learn to love me, instead. I will be the only one Neji will look upon, ever again. Enjoy your last days with him, Lord Kazekage. Soon you won't even be a memory to Neji. I'll come for him soon."_

"What is it?" Neji asked into the tense silence. "What does it say?"

"Nothing," Gaara said, his voice rough with barely checked fury. He slipped the scroll into the gourd, where the sand shredded it into tiny pieces. "It's nothing."


	2. Chapter 2

In a darkened room, a man sat in quiet contemplation. As he sat, he fondly admired the vast array of photographs that entirely covered over the walls. There were hundreds of photos, thousands perhaps, he'd lost count. The same individual was featured in every picture, though oblivious in every shot that anyone was even photographing them. The man in the photos had long, brunette hair, looking as though it would be unbearably soft to the touch. His eyes were like the finest opals, pearl white but with the barest hint of blue shadow, flecked with shimmering iridescence. His skin was unblemished and pale, despite the handful of years spent living in the desert village of Suna.

The man had spent years stalking Neji Hyuuga, photographing him, collecting items to display upon his shrine. A lone table was the only furniture to occupy the dark room. Spread out on it was the collection, priceless treasures for once being in Neji's possession. A snapped hair tie. Letters Neji had written to friends and family in Konoha, stolen out of the mail. A cup Neji once drank from, swiped from a restaurant. Bandages, discarded when minor cuts and injuries had healed. And now the greatest prize of all lay in a place of honor on the table; the length of Neji's long, beautiful hair, now carefully and lovingly braided.

He picked up the braid of hair from the table, running his fingers gently over its smooth, glossy surface. When he'd first seen Neji, was first captivated by his grace, intelligence and beauty, he'd thought it would be enough just to follow him at a distance, taking discreet photos and collecting small items for his treasure trove. He had started to find that it wasn't enough, though. The more he watched Neji, the more he wanted to be the one that Neji spoke to. The one Neji smiled at. The one Neji loved.

As his hands caressed the rope of soft hair, he felt the familiar heat of desire rising within him. For a moment he indulged in his most coveted fantasy, of a not too distant future, in which Neji Hyuuga was his lover. In due time, Neji's eyes would heal, though perhaps he'd never regain the full extent of his vision. Given more time, Neji's hair would grow out again, regaining its former splendor. Of course Neji would be upset at first, but it would not be long before Neji understood that all of this had been necessary. And once Neji understood, Neji would love him. And when Neji loved him…

With great reluctance, he set the braid of hair back on the table. There was no time to fantasize now. He had work to do.

There was a knock on the door, three unhesitating raps. His teammates knew he did not like to be disturbed while he was in that room, visiting Neji's shrine.

"What is it?" he snapped at Shiten, the only one that would dare to interrupt him.

Shiten never did apologize for disturbing him during these private moments. "You've been in there for hours. Any plans to come out tonight, or will you be sleeping in there again?"

He sighed. There was never any use in getting mad at his second in command. Shiten was an excellent shinobi, but he was an apathetic asshole. "I'm almost finished. We can begin work on the next phase soon."

"Glad to hear it. Also, the others have been wondering if you've picked a place to dispose of the kids' bodies," Shiten said through the door.

"We're not going to kill them."

There was a pause. Shiten was surprised at the news, he knew, though it wasn't so apparent in his voice. "You said we would."

"I've changed my mind. They're Neji's students, and they're better leverage alive than dead. You never know when there'll be a need for hostages."

Shiten blew out a gusty huff. "Yeah, whatever. Get your butt out here soon, or I'll send the others in to drag your out, no matter what perverted shit you're in the middle of." There was a longer pause, before Shiten added, softly, "Neji may never love you, you know."

"He will," he said, as he'd said to himself more time than he could count. "He'll have to. When everyone he knows and loves is gone, I'll be all that he'll have left. He'll have to love me then."

_x.x.x_

Shiten was not amused. This whole plan had been cobbled-together shit from the beginning, and it was only a matter of time before the whole thing fell apart. It had been one thing, blinding an elite shinobi and kidnapping a handful of runts. But taking on the insane red-headed twerp of a Kazekage was another matter entirely. What the hell was their leader _thinking_ when he'd come up with this half-baked plan?

Oh, that's right. He'd been thinking of Neji. That's all he'd thought of for _years_. Ever since their leader had first laid eyes on Neji Hyuuga, he'd been useless. They'd been unable to get anything accomplished, save for a hell of a lot of surveillance and petty thievery. Shiten was going to find out which of the others had suggested having Neji join their team, and he was going to bash their head in, even if they'd only said it as a joke. That's what had started this whole mess, and now they were all up to their necks in it.

Keep the _kids_ alive? Did their leader even know what that would entail? Keeping hostages alive involved having to feed them, and cleaning up after their inevitable bodily functions. The little boy already looked ready to piss himself. Maybe Shiten could get away with just hosing the lot of them down at regular intervals.

Shiten walked down the hallways to the little room where the children were currently being kept. The three of them were tied to chairs, blindfolded, their hands encased in plaster to prevent hand signs and escape attempts. They looked pretty pathetic there, all helpless, and Shiten briefly considered feeling sorry for them. They were just kids, after all. They didn't have anything to do with this shit, other than having the misfortune of being Neji Hyuuga's students.

"Okay, runts, you hang tight a while," Shiten said. "It's your lucky day; you're gone live for a while longer. Don't cause any trouble, and we'll see about getting you some food."

The little boy, Keichi, sniffled. "Who are you?" he asked, his voice quavering. "Why are you doing this?"

"Eh, hell if I know the whole story behind it," Shiten said. "Seems our esteemed leader has fallen hard for your teacher, and all this is some convoluted scheme to get Neji Hyuuga to love him back. None of it matters a whit to me, but I'm just following orders."

One of the little girls, Nori, spoke up. "Hyuuga-sensei can't love him," she said, with the simple logic of a child. "Hyuuga-sensei is already married."

"Yeah," piped up the other girl, Umi. "He's married to the _Kazekage_, and the Kazekage has a pet demon. When he finds you guys, he's gonna make the demon eat your heads!"

"I know," Shiten said. "That's why we're gonna have to kill him first."

_x.x.x_

Out in the hallway, Gaara was pacing. Neji sat in his hospital bed, idly counting Gaara's steps. Five steps forward, turn, five steps back, turn, repeat. Gaara was not the sort given to motion without purpose, so the fact that he was pacing attested to his current state of frustration and rage without target.

Neji wished he had the energy to be that angry. He felt empty, drained both physically and emotionally. He'd slept, off and on, since his arrival at the hospital, but it didn't seem to alleviate numbness that had settled over his spirit. His students were missing, and the longer they were gone, the greater the chance they were dead. Gaara was ready to spill someone's blood, and soon it might not matter if that someone was foe or friend. And his eyes…

Throughout his years as a shinobi, Neji had never given a thought to his heavy reliance on his eyesight. The byakugan was his greatest tool, his greatest weapon, and perhaps he had let himself grow too dependent on it. He felt helpless like this, and worse, a liability. The great Hyuuga prodigy, such a promising student, such a talented shinobi, reduced to this. Blind, and useless. Could a Hyuuga that lost his byakugan be anything but a disgrace to his clan?

There were voices out in the hall, momentarily distracting Neji from his runaround thoughts. He wasn't really eavesdropping on the conversations; it was just that without his eyesight, he relied more heavily on his hearing. He recognized a few of the voices that were talking with Gaara. Jounin had been in and out of the hospital all afternoon, talking with their Kazekage, discussing their progress, and receiving further orders. Gaara was hard pressed to sound civil at the best of times; at the moment, he was downright hostile.

There were new security measures being implemented all around Suna, most of which seemed to be centered around Neji. Neji didn't think he'd have need of the whole fleet of bodyguards Gaara seemed to be insisting on. The five assailants had attacked out in the desert; here in Suna, Neji was safe.

A woman's voice joined in with the conversation outside; it was the nurse that had been treating Neji during his stay at the hospital. Gaara spoke a few curt words to her, then the door opened and Gaara strode back into the room.

"We're going home," Gaara announced shortly.

"So soon?" Before Gaara had arrived at the hospital, the doctors had told Neji he might be here for a few days at least, while they monitored his recovering health. "Did something happen?" He knew very well nothing had happened; he'd heard most of the conversation that had gone on out in the hall.

"Our home has a better defensive position," Gaara said.

The sand flowed forward, coiling gently around Neji in thick bands, offering support and guidance as he got out of the hospital bed. "The hospital has some of the best defenses in the village," Neji couldn't help but add. "You act as though the threat is within Suna."

There was a beat of silence; Gaara did not deny it.

Neji took a breath, ignoring the way it burned in his weakened lungs. "What is it you're not telling me?"

"Within Suna or without, somehow they got a message in to me," Gaara finally said. "No one seems to know who delivered it to the team that brought it to me. The message clearly stated it's you they're after. Some sort of sick obsession with you. They seem to be convinced that you don't really love me. That they'll kill me, and take you for their own."

When Neji said nothing in the following silence, Gaara added, "I thought it might be better if you didn't know."

When the silence became too thick, Neji spoke quietly, "I know you thought it would protect me, but not knowing doesn't keep me any safer. I can't be kept isolated from this situation. We may not like it, but it appears I'm an integral part in this mess." Neji smiled then, faintly. "I'm just asking to be kept informed. I promise, I won't fall apart."

Some of the tension left Gaara, and he stepped forward. His fingertips ran a gentle caress down Neji's cheek, before Gaara kissed him. After all their years together, Neji's kisses still sent a thrill through Gaara, though today it was tinged with sorrow, and the fear of loss. Neji held Gaara, and Gaara felt no inclination to leave that protective embrace.

"I just couldn't stand it, to lose you," Gaara finally said, quietly. "When I got that message, I didn't even want to give voice to the possibility, that they could take you from me."

"It's not a possibility," Neji assured him. "No one is going to take me away, not even by force. That letter was just deranged ramblings from a very disturbed individual."

Gaara nodded, stepping back with some reluctance. "I'd still feel better if we returned home. The more defenses, shinobi and traps I can put between you and this freak, the better. At least until you're recovered. Do you think you can walk? The sand could carry you."

"I don't think that will be necessary," Neji said.

Though the hospital's doctors disapproved of releasing Neji early, they finally relented under the Kazekage's insistence, and let Gaara sign him out. The sand's support helped keep Neji steady, and kept him from running into unseen obstacles. It was still slow going as they walked down the streets of Suna; despite the sand's guidance, Neji was still uncomfortable with making his way blindly forward. Gaara walked right beside him, his hand on Neji's arm, a silent assurance of a protective presence.

Hidden within the shadows of the hospital, a photographer took careful aim at the pair with his camera, and shot.


	3. Chapter 3

The doctors had sent over medicine, to help speed Neji's recovery. The medication caused Neji to spend a lot of time sleeping, and during the intermittent periods of wakefulness, he was often confused and disoriented. Gaara had never seen Neji like this before, helpless and vulnerable. He would never have thought it was possible.

Outside of Suna, the search for the three missing genin continued. Gaara received periodic reports of the progress being made, or lack thereof. Whoever had kidnapped the children were not only experts at covering their tracks, but at laying a myriad of false trails in a dozen different directions, ultimately leading nowhere. It must have taken months to plan and prepare something so detailed.

The waiting was hard on Gaara. Part of him felt as though he should be out there in the desert with his jounin, searching for the children. But Gaara stayed with Neji, watching over and protecting him. He couldn't bring himself to leave Neji, for more than the briefest of times. There had been no more letters from the unknown assailant, but Gaara could not bring himself to relax, even for a moment.

The waiting was hard on Shukaku, too. Gaara could sense that the demon was torn as to what course of action should be taken, as well. Shukaku was a creature of base, often violent, instinct. When a threat was posed on one Shukaku considered "his," the first and most natural action to take is to track the threat down and dispatch it. But contrary to that instinct was another need, to be here guarding Neji, standing between him and whatever might come to bring him harm. The fact that Gaara could not be in two places at once was not a satisfying answer to the demon.

"_We could do both,"_ Shukaku pointed out, _"if you'd release me. You could stay and protect him, and I could find the men who did this to him and skin them alive. Then we could be sure he'd be safe."_

"You know I'm not going to let you out," Gaara said. He'd had this You're-stuck-with-me-so-get-over-it discussion with his demon at least a hundred times in his life, and he wasn't in the mood for it now.

"_Why not?"_

"Don't be childish. You know why not," Gaara said. "You'd tear up anything and anyone that got between you and your targets, and you wouldn't be satisfied when you were done. You wouldn't come back."

"_Of course I would,"_ Shukaku said. _"Eventually. Probably."_

"That's not inspiring a lot of confidence, Shukaku."

Gaara could feel the demon shifting within him, once again testing at its eternal boundaries, searching for any sign of weakness, any chance of escape. There was none; Gaara knew the defenses were solid. Shukaku knew it too, but it never stopped him from trying. The demon's chakra was rising, bleeding into Gaara's own, seething within its confines, like an animal that bites and claws at the bars of its cage.

"_Let me out,"_ Shukaku said, its voice low, deceptively placid. There was rage hidden behind those docile words, old rage and old hate, a bloodlust that had been building for centuries, ancient long before Gaara was chosen for its container. _"Let me out, and I'll wipe it all clean for you. Burn everything off of this world, until it lays silent and empty. There will be no one left to take him from us."_

"From me, you mean," Gaara corrected tiredly. "Neji isn't _yours_."

Shukaku's chakra pulsed thickly within Gaara. _"Yes, of course, that's what I mean. From you. Let me out, Gaara. You have to let me out. He'll be safe then. Safe for eternity. That's what you want, isn't it? To be with him forever. I can give you that…"_

"You're not fooling anyone," Gaara said. "If I let you out, you'll kill me, so that you'll never be put back. You would kill him too, in the end. _I_ will keep him safe. Even from you."

"_Let me out,"_ Shukaku snarled, pleasantry forgotten. _"Damn it, you misbegotten little shit, I'm sick of you! If you don't let me out right now, I swear I'll chew you apart from the inside out!"_

Gaara sighed, tuning out the demon's tirade. Shukaku had been quick to lapse into fury and death threats today; normally the semi-civilized conversation would last for at least an hour more while the demon attempted to convince Gaara to free it. The recent stress had given all of them a rather short temper lately.

Neji, probably the only one in Suna who'd been able to sleep at all recently, stirred slowly as he once more woke from drug-induced rest. Gaara sat on the edge of the bed, lightly touching Neji's arm.

Neji frowned a little at the contact. "You're skin is too hot."

Gaara blinked, belatedly realizing that he did feel quite a bit warmer than usual. He withdrew his hand. "Sorry. Shukaku is feeling restless today."

It happened sometimes; when Shukaku was particularly active, a side effect of the demon's chakra rising to the surface was an increase in Gaara's body temperature. It didn't matter in battle, when Gaara could work off the excess power, but when there was no outlet, the feverish heat Shukaku's chakra produced could potentially boil Gaara alive.

"You know you can't let him do that," Neji stated. "It's not good for you. Have you been here the whole time I've been asleep?"

"Of course." Neji couldn't seriously expect that Gaara would _leave_ him, could he?

It seemed, however, that Neji did. "Why don't you go for a walk or something? Practice some suitably exhausting jutsu in the training grounds. It'll calm the demon down a little to pretend to be maiming someone."

"I couldn't just leave you alone…" Gaara protested.

Neji smiled a little at that. "As per your recent orders, there are at least six jounin outside guarding this house at any given time. No one is getting in here, and I'm not going anywhere. I'll be safe for the hour or so that you're gone."

Gaara was still uncertain, but he had to admit that Neji had a point. He was starting to feel a little dizzy from the internal heat, and he wasn't going to be of any use to anyone if this continued. "…alright, I'm going. Under protest."

Neji nodded. "Duly noted."

Gaara collected the gourd, listening to the sand make little whispering whines within its confines. He patted the gourd lightly, and the sands settled. Gaara gave Neji a soft, lingering kiss, before he reluctantly moved to leave.

"I'll only be gone for an hour," Gaara said before he left. "Stay safe while I'm gone."

"I'll be fine," Neji promised.

Gaara could tell that already Neji was getting tired again. Likely, Neji would sleep the entire time he was gone. Satisfied that Neji would be alright in his absence, Gaara left him to his rest.

_x.x.x_

Neji woke to the sound of something crashing downstairs. He sat up slowly, groggy from medicated sleep. He didn't know how long he had been asleep this time. Gaara must be home. And still in a destructive mood, if he was downstairs breaking dishes. But Neji was willing to sacrifice a few of their plates, if it made Gaara feel better. Still, Neji ought to go down and see what he could do to calm him, in case Gaara still wasn't feeling better after he ran out of tableware to break, and resorted to smashing furniture.

It was lucky that he had lived here for several years, Neji mused, and could navigate through their home blindfolded. Since that was essentially what he was forced to do, these days. He managed to make a slow progress down the hallway, and navigated the stairs by stepping slowly down and keeping a firm hold on the banister. He didn't hear any additional crashes on the way down, so perhaps Gaara had already finished his tantrum.

"Gaara?" Neji called out, when he could hear no one moving around. "Where are you?" He stepped off the last stair, freezing in mid step as his bare foot encountered the edges of what seemed to be a field of broken glass scattered on the floor.

Something was very wrong here. "Gaara?" Neji called again. Now he could hear someone breathing, soft, quick breaths, though he could not pinpoint their source. Someone was here in the house with him, and it wasn't Gaara.

Neji stood very still, listening carefully and weighing his options. He couldn't go forward, without knowing how much glass was covering the floor; walking on it barefoot would slow him down too much. If he went back up there stairs, he could be cornered and trapped up there. If he yelled for the shinobi guarding the house, he wouldn't be able to hear the movements of the trespasser. He couldn't even tell if there was more than one of them. All he could do was stand there, listen, and wait.

There was the soft crunching of booted footsteps on broken glass as the intruder approached. They came to a halt in front of Neji, close enough that he could feel their breath on his face.

When they said nothing, did nothing, Neji finally spoke. "Who are you? What is it you want?"

"You." Their gloved fingertips lightly traced a path down Neji's cheek.

Neji's punch to their gut drove them back. There was a crunching of glass shards, soon drowned out by approaching voices, loud and urgent.

"Neji?" It was Kankuro. The outside guards must have finally seen the broken window, and assumed the worst. "Are you here?"

"I'm here," Neji replied, listening as Kankuro and several other running feet entered the room. "Is he gone?" He could hear the shinobi that had accompanied Kankuro checking out all the exits, and apparently not finding any sign of the intruder.

"Seems like it," Kankuro said. His footsteps crunched through the glass on the floor. "Damn, what a mess. Gaara is going to kill me."

"Gaara is not going to care about a broken window."

"He _is_ going to care when I tell him that somebody got in here, when six of his supposedly finest jounin were supposed to be guarding this house and keeping all potential threats away from you. He'll kill me for sure this time."

"So don't tell him," Neji said.

"Are you kidding? He's not just my brother, he's the Kazekage. Nobody lies to Gaara and lives to tell about it. I'd end up with my head impaled on a stick and displayed out front as a warning to others," Kankuro said.

"You've given this a lot of thought, haven't you?"

"Nobody spends several years living with Gaara without considering in excruciating detail the many ways he might murder them," Kankuro said. "Well, except you. Which, by the way, I find really annoying."

"You won't have to worry; I'll be the one to tell him what went on here," Neji said. "Has anyone figured out how the intruder got in here without anyone noticing?"

"Get in, hell," one of the other shinobi muttered. "What I want to know is how he got _out_. It's like he just vanished. Not a trace of him anywhere."

"No one saw him?" Neji said.

"Nobody but you," the shinobi said.

"I didn't _see_ anything, unfortunately."

"Oh… right."

An awkward silence followed, until Neji finally spoke. "Well, if he isn't here, then there's nothing more to be done. I'm going back upstairs."

"I'll double the number of guards on the house," Kankuro was saying as Neji ascended the stairs. "There won't be any more uninvited guests."

Neji just nodded and kept walking, the voices of the shinobi downstairs fading to a muted murmur when he reached the second floor. Neji made his way into his bedroom, closing the door firmly. He sat down on the edge of the bed, listening to the room's silence for a moment, before slowly beginning to unwrap the bandages that covered over his eyes.

The world as he saw it was nothing but a wash of gray, shades and shadows flowing into one another, no lines or angles to indicate anything physical or solid. Neji did his best to focus on something, anything, but no amount of glaring or even squinting caused any change to the colorless, shapeless view.

Neji knew he shouldn't do this. He shouldn't even have taken off the bandages, not for another couple of weeks, the doctor had said. He certainly should not be activating his byakugan this soon, but he had to know. He had to _see._

With the byakugan's enhancement, the gray blankness very slowly began to congeal into general shapes. He was still color-blinded, and unless he focused very hard on what he was attempting to see, it still tried to slide back into the shifting nebulousness. He could _almost_ see, if he just tried a little harder…

The first minute was alright, though his eyes stung and watered from the strain. He could ignore the slight pain, as he worked to focus his eyesight. Within a few minutes more, however, his injured eyes had enough, and the searing pain was sudden and unbearable. Ending the byakugan immediately, Neji pressed his palms over his eyes, as if that somehow would make the agony relent. It washed through his head as an angry tide, so sharp and merciless, it felt as though it encompassed his entire being.

When the pain finally ebbed, Neji became aware of a tang of blood in his mouth; he'd bitten his tongue. His eyes were still watering, and the world was still gray and formless, and even darker now than before. He was sightless, and helpless, and useless.

That was how Gaara found him, laying on the bed with tears making their lonely trails down his face. Saying nothing, Gaara joined Neji on the bed, holding him while Neji cried.


	4. Chapter 4

"I can't say all the fresh irritation has helped the healing process," the doctor finally said after his examinations were completed. "But as I explained before, we won't know the full extent of the damage until your eyes have been given more time to recover. What I can say is that with a few more stunts like that, your vision will be lost entirely, if it hasn't been already. I expect this time when I tell you to keep your eyes covered, and above all, not use your byakugan, you'll heed my warning."

Neji said nothing in reply, gave no indication that he'd even heard, so Gaara answered for him. "He will."

The doctor frowned, looking from the patient to the Kazekage, and back again, finally huffing a sigh and shrugging. "Then I'll take my leave." He stood, gathering his supplies. He paused at the door, looking back at the two. "Take care of yourself. Both of you."

In the following silence, Shukaku made a rude noise. _"I hate doctors."_

"_You hate everyone,"_ Gaara countered.

"_Good point."_

"Neji?" Gaara finally said. "Do your eyes still hurt?"

"I'm fine," Neji answered shortly.

"_Oh yeah, everything is chock full of sunshine and rainbows," _Shukaku muttered. _"If things get any more cheerful in here, I may vomit in your lower intestines." _

"_Can't you go find a nice dark corner to be a sarcastic bitch in? I promise I'll let you know when it's time to come out and kill people." _

"_You'd better. If I find out you've been disemboweling people without me, I swear you'll never get a decent night's sleep for the rest of your life."_

"You're going to need a better threat than that," Gaara muttered out loud, but was satisfied to feel the immediate presence of the demon fade into the background, as Shukaku tuned Gaara out. It was as close to privacy as Gaara ever got.

"Shukaku?" Neji inquired softly.

"Ignoring me. Finally," Gaara said.

"Mm." Neji let that go, asking instead, "Have Kankuro and the others found any clues as to the intruder's identity?"

"None. Except for the broken glass on the floor, there's no sign he even existed." Gaara paused a moment, before adding softly, "I shouldn't have left you alone."

"It isn't your fault. It's mine," Neji said. It was said quietly, irrefutably.

Gaara couldn't believe Neji actually thought it was his own fault this had happened to him. Neji was just the victim of some psycho's deranged game, but Gaara knew Neji didn't want to hear that. Neji blamed himself for his own weakness, and any harm that befell him due to that weakness clearly was, in his mind, his own fault as well. And Gaara, never very good at being comforting, could do nothing to change his mind.

Neji sat in silent contemplation of his own thoughts, before he said, "I miss being able to see your face."

"You don't need to see me," Gaara said. He took Neji's hands, bringing them up to let the fingertips brush ever so softly along his face. "You _know_ me."

Neji smiled faintly at that, letting his fingers trace over the familiar territory of Gaara's features. He traced the scar of the kanji that marked Gaara's forehead, though he knew each line by heart. His touches made a slow progression over Gaara's face; his cheeks, the bridge of his nose, the curve of his jaw, across his lips, all were explored with soft, unfaltering caresses.

This, at least, Gaara could do for Neji, and he was glad to. He hoped Neji would find some measure of comfort in it, the way Gaara always did. There were some days when Gaara felt he lived solely for Neji's touch upon his skin, the way being with Neji could erase the world and all the hurtful things that had come before that moment. Neji always had small, but effective, ways of making Gaara feel better. Gaara wanted to do the same for him.

With his hands for guides, Neji's delicate touches preceded by moments a series of soft, feathery kisses, barely brushing the surface of Gaara's skin. Gaara closed his eyes, to experience this moment as Neji did. With sight lost to him, the other senses came alive, four senses heightened to cover the loss of the fifth.

The two of them were cocooned in a silence that was in truth full of a small, otherwise unnoticed sounds. Gaara listened to the quick intakes of breath, his own and Neji's. Nearby, the sand was rushing in its gourd, issuing forth wordless whispers and sighs, a near perfect mimic of Gaara's own. Underneath of that, their heartbeats joined to form a staccato punctuation.

With slow deliberation, Gaara traced a path from Neji's jawline down his neck, finding that place along his throat that the pulse beat strongest. His touch lingered there, feeling the proof of Neji's life beneath his fingertips, feeling his own quicken in response. Gaara leaned in to press a kiss to that pulse point, smiling against skin as he felt Neji's hands discreetly maneuvering under the fabric of his shirt to seek out new territory to reacquaint himself with.

It was to be a slow dance that day, the only music the beating of their hearts. When clothes became a burden, they were unceremoniously discarded. Flesh warmed against flesh, body pressed to body. There was a familiar, stretching ache that preceded the joining of their beings, soon eclipsed by the heat and the pleasure of being one.

This moment was not just for Neji, Gaara admitted to himself, his movements slow and deliberate to prolong and fully appreciate every sensation. This was for himself, as well. It had been too long since they had been together like this, far too long. When Gaara could be with Neji like this- breathless, limbs tangled, bodies coupled- Gaara knew, really knew, that he was loved.

It lasted a short eternity, before reaching it inevitable and rather spectacular end. Their bodies tensed and shuddered, as the world around them was dissolved in the star-dazzling brightness of perfect pleasure. They lay together in the aftermath, breathing deeply as their heartbeats reluctantly slowed to a normal pace. Gaara waited until Neji had fallen into a light doze before rousing himself to the bathroom to clean off the sweat and stickiness, returning to the bed with a damp towel to do the same for his lover. Neji made a faint appreciative murmur in his sleep.

"_I always miss the fun bits,"_ Shukaku spoke up in Gaara's mind, sounding grumpy. _"I'm starting to think you wait until I'm not paying attention before getting yourself boinked."_

"_Of course I do," _Gaara replied, _"and I'm surprised it took you this long to figure it out. You might be a voyeuristic pervert, but I'm not interested in an audience."_

"_Come on, I've been stuck in here for years, you could at least provide some entertainment now and again."_

"_Not if I can help it." _

"_Someday, that won't be an option,"_ Shukaku forewarned.

Gaara ignored that, since Shukaku was probably just trying to bait him into an argument. He didn't have the energy to waste on arguing with the demon; there was too much to be done if he wanted to find the men that had done this to Neji. Gaara let Neji sleep; he needed his rest. Gaara wouldn't mind a chance to rest as well, but he knew he didn't have the time. After taking a moment to don appropriate clothing, Gaara silently slipped from the room to join the two that were waiting for him in his office.

Temari was scowling at the map she had laid out over Gaara's desk. Kankuro was looking over several lists, looking perplexed and chewing on the eraser end of a pencil. Both looked up quickly when Gaara walked in.

"What have you found?" Gaara asked, forgoing any kind of greeting for his siblings.

"A whole lot of nothing," Temari answered, fixing another scowl on the map. "If this group is hiding out with the missing genin in the desert, they're doing a damned good job of it. We've sent search parties out to every place a person could hole up in for any period of time, and each time we've come up empty."

"_I say we turn the desert upside down and shake it, see what falls out,"_ Shukaku suggested.

"_If I had enough chakra for that, I just might,"_ Gaara returned silently.

"_You know, I could help you with that if you wanted," _Shukaku said. _"You know, if you were to let me out…"_

"_No." _Aloud, he said, "Search it again. They're out there somewhere, and we're going to find them."

"Of course," Temari said. She glared at the map as if it might be thinking of biting her. "I just wish I knew where to start."

"Start here in the village. This very building, even, and work outward from there."

"Here?" Temari blinked at her brother. "You think they're hiding out right here in Suna?"

"Someone got in here today. No one saw them enter, no one saw them leave. They came at the only point in the day when I was not here. I'm starting to think someone is leaking them information about our defenses and our whereabouts, or they are close enough to spy on us on their own." Gaara looked at Kankuro. "Did you compile the list?"

"Yeah, but I don't know what good it's going to do," Kankuro said, handing Gaara one of the pieces of paper he'd been looking at. "Those were the shinobi guarding this place when the break in occurred. But I can't imagine any of them as a traitor. Honitsuya, Idomu, Shiten, Kade, and Larise have all proven their loyalty to you and this village repeatedly."

Temari looked up from her map to glance at Kankuro's list. "I notice you didn't list yourself, Kankuro. You were on guard duty with the others at the time, were you not?"

Kankuro frowned. "I didn't think it necessary to list myself. You can't possibly think I had anything to do with what's been going on lately."

"Oh, I don't know," Temari murmured teasingly. "Maybe you've been harboring an obsessive crush on Neji all these years."

Though Temari had only said it as a joke, the sand in Gaara's every present gourd issued forth a low, warning growl. Kankuro glanced at the container nervously. "Don't even joke about that. Besides, you know I'd never do anything to hurt Neji…"

"A good thing, too," Gaara murmured, not looking up from the list he held. "People who harm Neji do not have long life expectancies. I will talk to the shinobi on this list myself."

"You're not going to hurt any of them, are you?" Kankuro asked.

"Only if they give me reason to."

The sound of running and urgent voices out in the hallway interrupted the little meeting, however, and there was a perfunctory knock before the door was opened to reveal two of the shinobi on Kankuro's list, both looking harried and serious. Honitsuya was a tall woman with a curvaceous figure, russet-red hair and mismatched eyes, one blue and one gold. Her companion was Kade, a man who seemed to scowl at everyone and said very little, with choppy dark brown hair and almost black, baleful eyes.

"Lord Kazekage," Honitsuya said quickly. "There's been an attack. Several, actually. Just moments ago."

The list crumpled in Gaara's fist unheeded, and sand spilled from the gourd in a rush, tense and battle ready. "Where?"

"Hyuuga clan hall," Kade said shortly.

When Neji had moved to Suna to be with Gaara, several of his relatives, mostly from the Branch side of the family, had moved to the desert village as well, forming a third branch of the Hyuuga clan. It had seemed like a peaceful way for the Branch families to escape the rigid strictures placed on them by the members of the Main house. The Hyuugas of the new branch seemed to adapt well to their new life in Suna, enjoying new freedom they'd never known, though life was harsh at times in the desert. The only reason Gaara could think of for them to be attacked was due to their relation to Neji.

"Guard Neji with your lives," Gaara snapped at his siblings before running from the room, Honitsuya and Kade in the lead, a rushing wave of sand taking up the rear.

Gaara could smell it long before he came upon the scene of the attacks. The smell of burning and dust, and under it, the unmistakable smell of blood. Most of the buildings that made up the dwellings of the Suna branch of the Hyuuga clan had sustained some form of damage, scorched and smoldering as if from small but effective incendiary devices. Shinobi were everywhere, but every one was a familiar face, and there seemed no evidence of the culprits.

One chuunin, the nervous one with rumpled hair and clothes, brought up to Gaara a handful of charred, unrecognizable remains. "There were bombs, set all over the complex. Knocked a lot of walls down."

"How many injured?" Gaara demanded.

"Fifteen injured, nine seriously. Women and children mostly, hurt from falling walls and debris. No one saw who set the bombs. Everyone was just minding their own business, then… boom."

Gaara glared at the burning ruins, brushing past the chuunin in order to get a better look at the damage. The sand drifted along beside him, gusting fitfully; more evidence of the enemy, and yet no one to target. The injured were being evacuated to the hospital, and the shinobi were checking the buildings for any sign of the perpetrators. Gaara watched them all silently, wondering which one was the architect behind this latest disaster. It was someone here, someone _in Suna_, causing this mayhem. They blended seamlessly in with the village, until the Kazekage himself could not tell who was behind the attacks.

"Lord Kazekage," one of the jounin interrupted his thoughts as she approached him. Larise was short, her naturally light hair bleached nearly white by years in the sun, blind in one eye but no less dangerous a shinobi for it. "This was found in the wreckage. I think you'll want to take a look at it."

Gaara took the small scroll from her, already suspecting what it might contain. The writing was the same as the other letter he had received from Neji's stalker.

"_Some fun, isn't it? Just a few fireworks to welcome in the beginning of the end, Lord Kazekage. It's been so amusing, watching you scramble, trying to find me. You know I could never stray far from Neji's side; I've been here all along, and you still haven't got a clue. This is the proof of what I've known all along; you are not the right one to keep Neji. You cannot protect him. You cannot protect any of these people. But, the time is coming when you and I will meet. I will be sending you the time and the place. If you come alone, and do not bring your sand, Neji's students might yet live." _


	5. Chapter 5

He sat before his shrine in meditation on the events he had set in motion. The candlelight reflected off the glossy surfaces of the photographs of the wall, obscuring the images. It didn't matter; he knew every photo, every expression, every pose by heart. He knew everything about Neji, had studied him obsessively for years. Shiten often called him crazy when no one else dared to, but he didn't think he was. He wasn't crazy. He was in love.

Sometimes, though, he wondered if the two were one in the same.

His hands smoothed lovingly over the braid of Neji's long, smooth hair, gazing adoringly at the myriad of pictures of his love. "You won't think I'm crazy, will you. You'll understand why it had to be this way. Of course you will."

There was a short, careless knock on the door. "Hey in there. Get your butt out here and eat your damned breakfast. Soujishi spent a lot of time making it, and there's no way I'm gonna put up with his pouting if you let it go to waste."

"Shiten, go away!" he yelled back. "I'm not hungry."

"You're never hungry. Eat anyway," Shiten said. "You're gonna need all your strength if you're set on fighting that red-headed brat. That and a miracle."

He scowled, carefully laying the braided hair just so on the table, before standing and exiting the chamber over the exact path he'd entered, the many years of use having worn the trail into the soft stone of the floor. Carefully closing and sealing the door behind him, he glared up at his second in command, Shiten being at least a head taller than him. "Everyone else knows to leave me alone when I'm visiting Neji. Why can't you?"

"Somebody's gotta look out for you, 'cuz God knows you won't do it yourself. You forget all about the little necessities of daily life when you're in there. Eating. Sleeping. _Bathing. _You smell like a dead horse, you know."

"Neji won't care."

"Neji lost his _sight_, not his sense of smell," Shiten said. "It's a wonder we haven't been found already. They could just follow the flies and buzzards right to you. You want to make the guy fall for you, take a damned ­_bath._"

"I thought you wanted me to eat breakfast."

"Bath first. You'll make the others lose their appetites. I think I might hurl, myself."

He smiled at Shiten, then headed for the small cavern designated as the bathing chamber. "Ah, Shiten, whatever would I do without you?"

"Die, probably."

"I want the letter sent this afternoon. Get everything ready for me, won't you?"

"Yeah, yeah," Shiten muttered, heading in the opposite direction, into the room where the prisoners were kept. The children were used to the sound of his footsteps by now, even perked up a little when they heard him coming. Shiten was the one that usually brought them food.

"Alright, brats," Shiten said, surveying the three of them, tied to their chairs, so small and helpless. "We have to get you nice and ready for the grand finale. You three will have front row seats."

_.x.x.x._

The village of Suna was in lockdown. No one got it, and no one got out without the Kazekage's express permission. Currently, no one had yet dared asked for that permission, because Gaara was not feeling at all sociable. Even Temari and Kankuro were avoiding his presence when they could, and doing their best to be very, very polite when they couldn't. The sand in its gourd had been whirling and howling for days, ever since the bombing of the Hyuuga complex, and Gaara wasn't even making the attempt to restrain it. The villagers were whispering and wondering about the activity of the demon, and whether their Kazekage had come unhinged and returned to the murderous ways of his childhood. For the most part, the villagers of Suna trusted their leader. But still, when he got that look in his eye…

Only Neji seemed entirely unaffected by Gaara's recent rage and fury. A small part of Gaara that held on to calm reason and rationality, and it was a _very_ small part at times these days, was pleased by this show of trust on Neji's part. Gaara would never hurt Neji. For everyone else, he made no promises.

"You're scaring the villagers," Neji commented to Gaara from where he sat on their bed, calm and regal as a king.

"They should be scared." Gaara was sitting on the edge of the bed, combing his fingers through the tendrils of sand that twined around him. The sand did not like the idea of being left behind when Gaara went to fight, and was showing more than its usual possessiveness.

"That's Shukaku talking."

"_How can he always tell?"_ Shukaku demanded.

"_Because you're the bloodthirsty one in this relationship." _

"_You want to skin these cretins alive inch by painful inch just as much as I do, bucko. They've dared cause injury to he who's ours-"_

"_-mine,"_ Gaara corrected.

"_-and that makes you just as murderous as me. It's kind of refreshing to see you brought back to your old homicidal self, actually. I may thank these creeps by killing them quickly. Then again, where's the fun in being that merciful?" _

"_If you don't shut up right now, you're not going to get the chance to kill _anyone,_" _Gaara informed the demon.

"…_right. Shutting up now." _

"Gaara?" Neji moved slowly from where he sat, making his way across the bed to sit beside Gaara. Gaara didn't flinch when Neji touched him, but it was a near thing; even within the safe confines of his own room, alone with his lover, he was uneasy and jumpy. "Are you really going out there alone?"

"That's what the letter said for me to do."

"There are five of them, at the least. You know this is going to be a trap. They want to kill you."

"I know." That didn't bother him much. The sand was stained with the blood of the many people who had tried to kill him in his life. The sand whined, reminding him; he couldn't take the sand with him this time.

Neji drew away a little. "Perhaps I should just leave Suna. So many people have gotten hurt already, just for their proximity to me. My students, my family. If they were to hurt you, too…" He shook his head. "It may be better for everyone if I left. The threat would follow me away from here."

The sand leapt at Neji, twining itself possessively around him in thick ribbons, not tight enough to hurt, but enough to impair all movement and hamper escape, declaring in its own subtle way that _"this is mine."_

"You're not leaving," Gaara said. Gently, he brushed a lock of hair away from Neji's forehead. "You know I won't let you go."

"I know." Neji shifted, and the sand reluctantly loosened its hold. "But it was worth a try. I don't want to let you go, either. If you don't come back…"

"I will come back," Gaara said. "I will bring you their heads in a bag."

"But my birthday's not for months."

"I'm leaving my sand behind," Gaara said, ignoring the mournful moan said sand made at the declaration, "but I'll bring Temari and Kankuro. They can be… backup. Will that reassure you?"

"It helps," Neji said. He paused, then added, "I don't have to warn you to be careful, do I?"

"No," said Gaara, "but you can if you want to."

"Be careful."

"I will."

There was a cursory knock at the door, before Temari let herself in, holding a scroll in one hand. She handed the scroll over to her brother. "Gate guards found this. It's addressed to you. I think I can hazard a guess as to who it's from."

Gaara unrolled the parchment, reading over its now-familiar handwriting.

"_It's time we met, Lord Kazekage. I'm waiting in the canyon where Neji was found. Remember; if you want the children to live, you'll come alone. No ninja, no sand. When you're dead, Neji will finally be free. He will thank me for saving him from a monster like you." _

Gaara fed the scroll to the sand, letting it shred it to miniscule particles. As the letter had said, it was time for them to finally meet. And then Neji's stalker would discover just how much of a monster Gaara could be.

_.x.x.x._

Though it was late afternoon, and the sun was high and blazing overhead, at the bottom of the canyon it was almost pleasantly cool. Gaara walked slowly amid the boulders, most of which were larger than he was. There was no sign of his prey. Gaara felt odd without his gourd, without the ever-present hum of the sand.

"_Don't worry,"_ Shukaku piped up. _"You still have me."_

"_How very reassuring. I'll just let you talk him to death." _Gaara looked back to way he had come, wondering if Temari and Kankuro had found anything yet. The three of them had split up shortly after leaving Suna; Gaara had to be seen arriving in the canyon alone, as the letter demanded. Temari and Kankuro had each taken a longer route, one to each of the farther ends of the canyon then moving inward, to scout out potential ambushes.

Where Gaara stood, it was quiet, peaceful. He'd found the place where Neji and his students had been attacked, marked by the remaining traces of the fight. The boulders surrounding the area were heavily marked with scratches from thrown kunai.

It seemed he'd arrived early to the battle. That was odd, since the letter indicated his prey was already here and waiting for him. Perhaps they'd left already.

The illusion of being alone in the canyon was broken by the faint whistle of a flying kunai. It missed Gaara by inches, thrown hard enough to pierce and imbed itself in the boulder beside his head. The assassin moved in fast and silently, his feet barely touching the ground as he ran. He was covered from head to toe, a plain, white mask concealing his face. Light glinted off the weapons in his hands, gleaming on polished and deadly metal as they were thrown with deadly accuracy.

Sand rushed up to snatch each projectile out of the air at the last moment, flinging them out of the way. Gaara grit his teeth; this sand was slower to respond than his own. The sand he normally carried with him in the gourd was heavily enriched by his own chakra, and the many years of working with it had honed its reflexes to a hair-trigger. He could infuse this desert canyon's sand with chakra, but without proper time to "train" it, it could not compare to his usual standards. At best, it was a large mass of clumsy, brute strength.

But he would have to work with what he had.

The assassin danced around the sands' attempts at grabbing him, tossing off a swift and accurate projectile with every other breath. The sand caught them all, crushing them into shapeless masses. As Gaara's chakra worked through it, the sand became stronger and faster. The sand scooped up boulders, hurling the giant missiles at the assassin, one right after another. The canyon was full of the sounds of boulders smashing against the canyon wall, and the view was soon obscured by sand and dust.

The assassin was quick on his feet, but he was hard pressed to dodge something as heavy and huge as the boulders while still attacking. He darted away from each falling mass, attempting to get close to his target without getting himself crushed. Gaara watched the destruction wreaked by the sand with an inscrutable expression. The sand collected more grainy bulk from the canyon floor and, while the assassin frantically dodged one particularly massive boulder, the sand snatched him right out of the air, completely cocooning him within itself.

The crashing of boulders ceased, and the dust cleared. Gaara smiled, slowly, disturbingly. The assassin was hidden away within the floating shell of sand, struggling within its confines but unable to break free.

"_Kill him,"_ Shukaku hissed, and for once, Gaara agreed.

Gaara held out his hand, clenching it suddenly into a fist as if crushing a particularly annoying insect in his palm. Responding immediately, the sand contracted with deadly force, crushing the assassin trapped within with lethal pressure.

And then all was silent.

"_That's it?"_ Shukaku demanded after a heartbeat of silence. _"Where's the agonized scream? Where's the spray of blood? Where's the DEATH? Damn it, that's not fair!" _

The sand slowly eased its hold. From within its confining grip, water trickled out the bottom, staining the sands beneath it a dark mud.

"A water clone," Gaara said, watching. Hard thing to come by, in the desert. In fact, he only personally knew one person who regularly used them as their specialty.

He looked up sharply at the canyon wall, where a figure quickly scrambled to avoid his gaze, knocking loose a small shower of loose stones as they did so. The sand, now slightly damp, collected under Gaara to form a platform, lifting him from the canyon floor toward the voyeur hiding on the ledge.

They were a short, scrawny little thing, dressed in the clothes of the attackers as Neji had described them. The would-be assassin was scrambling desperately up the canyon wall, but in their panic, they weren't getting very far. They slipped on an insufficient foothold, crumpling in a heap on the ledge.

"Don't kill me," they begged in a high, girlish voice. "Please, please Lord Kazekage, don't kill me!"

"I'm not going to kill you, Umi." Gaara reached out, removing the cloth mask and dark shades that hid the girl's features. Neji's student looked a little worse for wear, but for the most part unharmed, despite her terror. "Umi, where are your teammates? Why are you here?"

"They said they'd kill them if I didn't kill you!" Umi blurted, scrubbing frantically at the tears that welled in her eyes. "I knew I couldn't kill you. You're so much _scarier _that me! But they're my best friends! I had… I had to do something. I'm sorry! If I didn't try, they'd know, and then they'd kill Keichi and Nori! You have to find them! You have to find them before they…" She hiccupped, slumped on the ledge in misery.

"Hey up there!" Temari called up from the canyon floor. "Come see what I found!"

Gaara and Umi looked down to where she stood. Umi's face brightened when she spotted the small figure, dressed in the same assassin's gear as Umi, accompanying Gaara's sister.

"Keichi!" Umi exclaimed. She scrambled over the side of the ledge, making her way down the cliff face with frantic, uncoordinated scramblings in her haste, and would have fallen if Gaara's sand had not caught her. She made little note of that, running to hug her friend the moment her feet touched the canyon floor.

"Umi," Keichi whispered, hugging her back. His face was stained with tears of his own, most of the exposed skin covered in a multitude of small but harmless scratches. "They said they'd kill you and Nori if I didn't kill the Kazekage, or anyone who came here to back him up."

Gaara let the sand take him back to the canyon floor, assessing the scratches on Keichi and looking at his sister in askance.

"Afraid I roughed him up a little before I realized who he was," Temari explained. "He's the only one I've found out here, no ambushes." She nodded to Umi. "I see you've found one of your own."

"Looks like we're late for the party," Kankuro said as he joined the group, Nori in assassin gear of her own walking beside him. Nori joined her teammates for a tearful reunion, while Kankuro joined his siblings.

"No ambushes, other than Nori," Kankuro reported. "Nori's not bad, for a genin. She said she was told Umi and Keichi would be killed-"

"-if she didn't kill me, or anyone who came to aid me," Gaara finished.

"Yeah, something like that." Kankuro looked around. "I don't see any blood, so I'm guessing it was just the kids out here? Wouldn't have expected them to just let the kids go."

Gaara hadn't been expecting it, either. He'd been expecting to come down here, find the man or men who had hurt Neji, and kill them spectacularly. The fact that there was no one here to kill was severely disappointing.

Why would they send the kids out here? Perhaps they were hoping Gaara would not realize their identities until it was too late, and kill the children himself. Surely they would have realized that three genin would be no match for the Kazekage. So why throw away the only bargaining chips they had?

Because they didn't need them anymore.

"_I have a bad feeling about this…" _Shukaku said.

"We need to get back to Suna," Gaara said, startling his companions with his severity. _"Now."_

_.x.x.x._

The shinobi guarding the Kazekage's home were all startled when Gaara stormed in, accompanied by a moaning rush of desert sand trailing in his wake. Gaara turned his deadly glare on the nearest of them, demanding sharply, "Where is he?"

"Uh… uh…" Having never been directly faced with a pissed off Kazekage before, the targeted shinobi stuttered under the assault. "W-where is who?"

"_Neji!"_ Gaara snapped.

"He's in his room!" the man sputtered. "We just checked up on him not too long ago. He was sleeping, so we didn't bother him!"

Ignoring the confused questioning of his shinobi, Gaara ran up the stairs, throwing open the bedroom door.

Neji was indeed curled up in bed, sound asleep. Gaara let out his breath in a low rush, relief flooding every inch of him at seeing Neji safe. The relief, however, was soon replaced with suspicion, as he approached the bedside and Neji did not move. Did not, in fact, even appear to breathe.

"Neji?" Gaara reached out, touching Neji's cheek.

The skin was soft, so soft and infinitely fragile. Under Gaara's touch, it crumpled inward, the entire structure of the construct disintegrating into nothing but ash and sand. It had been nothing but an obscure jutsu, a decoy constructed in the resemblance of Neji.

Neji, the real Neji, was gone.

_.x.x.x._

Author's Notes: Coming soon, to a fanfic near you: Final Chapter- the Stunning Conclusion!


	6. Chapter 6

A great fog lay thick in Neji's mind, clouding his thoughts. Floating within this muffled nothingness, it took a long time to determine whether he was awake or still sleeping. At last, he determined he was awake. If he were dreaming, he would not be so uncomfortable.

Where he was, he could not figure out, nor how he got to be there. He remembered trying to sleep but being unable, too anxious and restless to relax. He had heard someone entering his room. Expecting it was one of the many guards come to check up on him, he had started to ask who was there. Then… a thick cloth on his face, and a too sweet, cloying smell invaded his thoughts and his being, and there was nothing more.

Neji took stock of his person and surroundings, as best he could without the aid of sight. He was lying half on his side now, on what felt like a pallet stuffed with rags and smelled like mold. His hands were encased within some unyielding substance, rendering them incapable of movement. His feet were bound together. When he tried to move them, there was a rattle and dragging of metal links across the floor; he was chained to something, the wall or the floor, perhaps. The room was cold, a feeling he had not often felt since his move to Suna. There was a dampness to the air, and he tasted stale water with every breath he took. He could not hear the wind.

So, the unknown assailants had taken him prisoner, clearly having drugged him first before bringing him to wherever this was. Did that mean Gaara had been defeated? Was Gaara even now lying dead or dying somewhere in the desert, with the wind and sand slowly burying his body? Neji quickly shook the thought away. These assailants were clever, but they hid themselves and used tricks and false trails. In a direct confrontation, they had no hope of defeating the Kazekage. But despite this conviction, the worry persisted.

Neji flexed his hands slowly, testing the strength of the substance that constricted them. His fingers cramped almost immediately; the mass had no elasticity and allowed for no movement. The texture seemed soft and chalky against his skin, however, and the entire mass was fairly weighty. Some sort of plaster? If he held very still, he could almost feel it hum against his skin, as though infused with chakra, likely to prevent him using his own chakra to break it. This had all been very carefully planned.

"So, awake now, are you?" a gruff voice spoke about seven feet to Neji's left. "You know, I sure as hell hope you're worth all the trouble you've cause me these past couple of years. If having you as his own doesn't fix him, I might just kill the both of you."

Neji knew the voice, and knew the face and the skills of the shinobi that went with it. "Shiten." His voice was hoarse and his throat felt raw; whatever drug they had used on him must have aggravated his injury.

"The very same," Shiten agreed. "Not much point in keeping secret identities anymore, is there?"

"I would not have expected you to be involved in this." Shiten had always been so… _loyal. _But apparently his loyalty truly lay elsewhere.

"Amazing thing, isn't it? I can hardly believe it myself sometimes. Growing up, I never imagined I'd get myself neck deep into something so idiotic," Shiten said. "But that's what I get for second-guessing Fate, I suppose."

"You could always let me go," Neji suggested.

"Wish I could," said Shiten. "Can't imagine you're any happier to be here than I am to have you here. But I can promise you'll be treated well so long as you're here, if you can ignore the whole being-chained-up part of it. We'll probably be moving out of this moldy hole soon, too, and that'll be quite the relief. Once he realizes you're missing, that red-headed brat will tear this desert to pieces trying to find you, and I hope to be long gone by then."

"Gaara's still alive?"

Shiten let out a bark of laughter. "Don't sound so relieved; you'll hurt my leader's feelings."

"And wouldn't that be tragic."

"You know," Shiten said, "I'm not condoning what he's done, and I would understand if you couldn't ever forgive him for it. But I want you to know, before this whole stupid obsession with you, he was relatively normal. Had his quirks, of course, but he had the skills, all the makings of a great shinobi. He could have been one of the best. Then you came along."

"Are you blaming _me_ for this?"

Shiten mulled that over. "I'd like to. I'd like to find _somebody _to blame for this whole shittin' mess. Can't blame him; he's just an idiot. A love-addled idiot. But you're right, there's no way you could have even guessed this would happen. None of us could. I bet Fate's laughing her ass off at us right now." He paused, then continued, "Anyway, no point in angsting over what could have been. I'll go get you something to eat; you'll feel better after you've tried some of Soujishi's food. Kid's got some talent for following recipes. He's the one that cooked up the blinding powder for your eyes."

"I'll be sure to thank him," Neji said. "Shiten… if you _know _your leader is insane, why do you follow him? Why would you do all this?"

"… Because he asked," Shiten said. "I've been a lot of places in my life, and I never felt like I belonged in any of them. Then one day, he asked me not to leave him. So I stayed. Simple, really." There was a moment's pause, then the sound of Shiten's footsteps exiting the room.

"…yeah," Neji murmured to the empty silence. "Simple."

_.x.x.x._

He was pacing the floor, absently chewing on a fingernail when Shiten walked in. He looked up at his second-in-command with eager eyes. "So, what'd he say? Did he say anything about me?"

"Yeah, he thinks you're crazy and stupid," Shiten answered. "And I happen to think he's right."

He smiled indulgently. "Shiten, Neji would never say anything like that about me. I did all of this for him. He'll understand that."

"Then _you_ go in there and explain it to him," Shiten said. "Because I sure as hell _don't _understand it. You haven't even gone to see him yet. _You _were the one so eager to get him here that you couldn't even wait until his husband was dead."

"I can't just go in there," he protested. "I wouldn't know what to say!"

"I don't believe this… you mean you've been head-over-heels, blind-to-reality _obsessed _with this guy for years, and you haven't even thought of a single thing to say to him?"

"I've thought of thousands of things to say to him," he said with a sigh. "I just get so nervous when I'm around him, I don't think any of them will come out right. I really want to impress him."

"Well I don't know about him, but _I _sure would be impressed if you were to quit with all the bullshit and just let him go back to his home and his family. Plus, I think you'd live longer that way. Not _much_ longer, mind you."

"Whose side are you on, anyway?"

"My side," Shiten said. "I'm gonna get killed for this little stunt too, you know. Oh, and the others are starting to spook. They want to get out of here before the red-headed psychopath shows up."

"Let them go," he said. "I don't need any of those cowards anymore, anyway. I'll kill the Kazekage myself. I was thinking, after I've killed him, I could become Kazekage. Neji would be impressed with me then."

"Except for the part where Temari and Kankuro murder you, that's a great idea," Shiten muttered. "Look, if you're planning on living past tomorrow, we need to get out of here. Leave the desert completely, and find a nice spot on the other side of the world where we have a hope of not being found and therefore, staying alive."

He blinked at Shiten with wide eyes. "I'm not leaving."

"What? Why not?!"

"The Kazekage has to die. I have to kill him. If I don't, Neji will never be free of that monster. He won't be free to truly love me. I have to do this for him. Until then, we'll stay in the caverns. They won't find us here."

"You're going to die, do you understand that?" Shiten shouted at him. "This stupid obsession with Neji is going to get you killed, probably soon, and I'm not going to be able to bail you out."

His eyes narrowed. "You're just trying to make me give Neji up, aren't you? You want to take him for yourself!"

"You're being stupid again."

"You can't have him, and I don't need your help!" he yelled at Shiten. "You can just leave with the others. Get out of here, all of you! I don't need any of you. I have Neji. He's all I need. He's all I ever needed."

Shiten just stood there, staring at him. "You're really kicking me out?"

"I said _leave,_ didn't I?"

The silence stretched, before Shiten shrugged. "Alright, I'm going. It's your funeral." He turned and walked out of the room without looking back, going to find the others so they could all take their leave, and hopefully save their own skin.

Their leader was left alone in the dark, with no friend or ally but his own delusions.

He had no regrets.

_.x.x.x._

"So," Kankuro said to his sister, "how long do you think we have before he comes out and kills everyone in sight?"

Temari spared a brief glance at the clock. "I'd say about three minutes."

It had been a close call when Gaara had come home and discovered Neji missing. An explosive rush of sand had nearly overflowed the bedroom, and Gaara had let out a noise eerily akin to Shukaku's howl of fury. His siblings had waded through the rushing tides of sand to get to his side, risking their lives to reach him, knowing that if they didn't get him calmed down and fast, they were all going to die anyway. It had been lucky that Gaara was not yet too far gone, and a great deal of fast talking on Temari's part managed to keep their Kazekage from completely leveling Suna where it stood. Fifteen minutes, he'd said, with a look in his eyes that bordered on unspeakable madness. He'd give them fifteen minutes to figure out where Neji was and who had taken him. If they didn't have answers by then…

…well, Gaara had specified what exactly it was that he'd do. They probably didn't want to know the details of the threat, anyway. Whatever it was, it was guaranteed to be painful and messy. Their imaginations supplied the rest.

All they had to go off of was the same old maps they'd gone over a thousand time, and a hundred useless lists. No one had been at the house that shouldn't have been. No one had seen who had taken Neji. No one had a _clue._

And all Temari and Kankuro had were three minutes to go.

"Why couldn't I have been an only child?" Kankuro finally muttered, tossing away one of the maps.

"Because then _you _would be the one stuck with a demon in your head," Temari pointed out. "You really think you could deal with it better than he does?"

"Good point." Fed up with all of it, Kankuro grabbed one of his lists, the list of those that had been guarding the house during the first break in. "Alright. We pretty much know it has to be an inside job. One of our own people had to have taken Neji, right?"

"Right," Temari agreed. "I don't see how else they could get somebody in here."

"…so who's missing?"

Temari blinked at him, then ran to the office door. The guard out in the hall blinked at her when she flung the door open. "I want every single person that was guarding Neji in here. Now!"

There was a crash from the general area of Gaara's room. Kankuro winced. "I think our time's just about up."

As Temari had requested, the office was soon crowded with some of Suna's finest jounin, everyone that had been guarding the house at the time of Neji's abduction. Kankuro was checking the names off his list when the door was thrown open to admit their Kazekage.

Gaara's demeanor was deceptively calm. But the gourd was once more slung on his back, and the sand spilled freely from it in an agitated miniature storm, wreathing around Gaara and hissing like a pit of snakes. Gaara's gaze moved slowly over the assembled shinobi, as if deciding which to kill first. Most of them shifted, almost imperceptibly, trying not to cringe when the sand brushed against them.

Finally, Gaara's gaze came to rest on his siblings. "Who took him?" he demanded.

Kankuro looked at the list in his hands, rather than have to meet his brother's eyes. "We're thinking it was Shiten," he said. "He's the only one not present and accounted for."

"And come to think of it," one of the assembled jounin added, "nobody can remember seeing the group of chuunin that Shiten has taken to training around lately, either."

If Gaara felt any surprise over Shiten and his team's apparent betrayal, he showed no sign. "Where did they take him?"

"Well…" Temari hesitated. "We haven't quite gotten to that point-"

"Lord Kazekage?" a small, timid voice spoke from beyond the doorway.

The sand rushed out into the hallway, surrounding the three children that stood there and all but dragging them inside the office so Gaara could get a better look at them. Nori, Umi and Keichi all looked terrified by their Kazekage's dark glare, but resolutely stood their ground.

"We want to help," said Keichi, trying to sound confident and helpful, but his voice was shaky.

"We never got to see where they took us," Nori said. She managed to sound less frightened than her companion, but only by a little. "But maybe if we tell you what we know, it would help you find Hyuuga-sensei."

"What do you know?" Gaara said.

"It was cold all the time," Umi said. "And really damp. We couldn't hear the wind, but sometimes we heard running water. And there was a lot of kind of muffled echoes, like we were underground."

"Like an underground maze," Keichi said. "There seemed to be a lot of tunnels to go through when they led us out to the canyon."

"There aren't many tunnels out in the desert," Temari said. "We've got the escape tunnels leading out of the village for emergencies, but my search teams already checked those and the outposts that they lead to."

"Those are the new tunnels," Gaara said. "What about the old ones?"

Temari blinked. "The old tunnels are gone. All the entrances to them have buried long ago."

In their desert, a land of sand and plagued by near constant winds, underground structures didn't tend to hold up very well. The current escape tunnels had been built many decades ago, when the previous tunnels had collapsed in several places. The old tunnels had been mostly- but not completely- filled in, abandoned and forgotten. It was expected that the desert would finish the work of destroying them. But perhaps some part of that network remained intact.

And if they did remain, there was only one place where they came near any source of water.

­_"We kill soon?"_ Shukaku asked, hopefully.

­_"Yes,"_­ Gaara promised the demon, leaving the room without so much as a word to the others. The sand swirled out behind him, whispering to itself in malicious glee. _"We kill soon."_

_.x.x.x._

Neji knew they were there. They'd been there for the last twenty minutes, just standing in the doorway, watching him. They didn't say anything, but Neji could hear their soft, somewhat uneven breathing. They had not yet tried to stop him.

The heavy plaster mold that imprisoned Neji's hands was brought down with a hard _thunk_ on the stone floor. It jarred Neji's hands trapped within, the ache of it resonating up his arms. Small flakes of the plaster broke off, but the bulk remained un-cracked. His hands hurt, his arms hurt, his shoulders hurt and his pride hurt. But nothing else seemed to even put a dent in the plaster casing, and so he brought up its bulky weight again and again, smashing it against the floor. Plaster chips and dust flew everywhere, and the sound echoed around the room until it thundered like a drum in Neji's head.

When Neji paused in his work, a voice spoke up softly from the direction of the doorway. "You're going to hurt yourself if you keep that up."

Neji ignored them, lifting the plaster burden again to hit it against the floor. Hardly any broke off this time; his strength was starting to wane.

"Really," said the voice, "I do wish you would stop that. You'll make your hands swell and bleed. That would be so sad."

Neji hit the plaster to the floor; it thudded dully, and he didn't bother raising it again. "Don't pretend that you care."

"How could you say such a thing to me?" they said. "Of course I care for you. You know I do. After everything I've done for you. I rescued you. I brought you here."

"And chained me." Neji shifted his leg; the chain rattled across the ground for emphasis.

"I didn't want to. I had to," they said. There was a note of pleading to their voice, begging Neji to understand. "I love you. I've always loved you. But I can't trust you, not yet. I can't let you walk free, not until I know you understand. When you love me, I'll unchain you."

"You're delusional," Neji said. "I do not, and will not, ever love you."

"Oh, I understand," they said placidly. "That… creature still has you under its spell. But I will kill it for you. And when I do, your heart will be free to love me." He paused, as if listening; Neji thought he heard it too, the sound of a distant crash, echoing a long way off down the tunnels. "He'll be here soon. The monster. I will kill him, and you'll love me." They left, their footsteps striding unhurriedly down the corridor.

_He'll be here soon._ Gaara. Gaara was alive, and he was coming here. It would be, without a doubt, an exceptionally bloody fight. Someone was going to die here today. Under normal circumstances, Neji would have no doubt that Gaara would dispatch his opponent in a brutal but efficient manner, leaving little left of them but a thick, bloody paste. But Neji's captor did not seem perturbed by possibility of imminent demise, in fact seemed quite confident that they would emerge the victor. Clearly they were not in their right mind, and it could be a mistake to underestimate someone so obviously insane. There was no telling what they may be capable of.

With renewed vigor, Neji smashed the plaster encasing his hands against the floor, again and again. He was not going to sit here and wait to be rescued.

_.x.x.x._

The ceiling of the tunnel caved in under the onslaught of the sand, the desert sun shining down into the dusty passageway. Sand trickled into the hole in rivulets, under Gaara's direction forming into a staircase on which he could descend. He didn't hesitate, stepping down into the darkness. He'd come to this place alone; Temari, Kankuro and their hand-picked teams of jounin were scouting out any other entrances to the tunnels, and preparing ambushes should Gaara's prey manage to escape. They had wanted to come with Gaara, but he had refused. If it came down to unleashing the demon, a prospect Shukaku was in full favor of, he wanted them far out of the way.

Shukaku had been happily singing a little ditty off-key to itself ever since they'd left Suna and tracked their way to the oasis. It had a meandering tune, and the words didn't rhyme, but the demon didn't care. _"…gonna kill 'em, gonna kill 'em, gonna squish their heads, gonna eat their eyes…" _Gaara had been determinedly ignoring the demon's obviously glee at the impending murder and mayhem, instead focusing on finding the forgotten remains of the escape tunnels. As he'd expected, when the sand had punched a hole through seemingly solid ground and into the cavern, these tunnels had not been entirely filled in after all.

Gaara walked slowly through the tunnels, hearing nothing but the echo of his own footsteps, and the hissing of the sand in its gourd. He had no illusion that his entrance had gone unnoticed, so he did not attempt to mask his presence. The tunnels descended farther underground, where the heat of the desert sun did not penetrate, and a damp chill permeated the air and walls. He could hear water, far away; the oasis was one of a series, all interconnected by an underground river. That was part of the reason these tunnels had been closed; some of them had flooded, and some had collapsed when the river weakened their supporting walls.

These tunnels were a maze, some corridors blocked by cave-ins, some circling around until they met up at where they'd begun. As Gaara walked, sometimes he could hear soft laughter, echoing on cold stone. It seemed so far away, though the sound followed him on his trek.

"Lord Kazekage," a voice echoed through the tunnel, whispered and taunting. "All alone, far from home… these tunnels will be your grave."

"_Keep laughing, scumbag,"_ Shukaku murmured in delight, as Gaara turned down another corridor to follow the voice. _"Soon as we find you, I'm gonna reach down your throat and rip out your lungs. Try laughing then." _

"Neji's mine now, you know. He's promised to love me forever, once you're dead," the voice continued, baiting Gaara onward. "You're a freak, a monster. Neji knows that now. He won't mourn your death. He'll be happy. He'll be happy when I bring him your corpse. Does it hurt, knowing he prefers me?"

"_Lying liar who lies," _Shukaku hissed. _"Maybe we cut off his tongue first?"_

"_First we have to find him,"_ Gaara said. _"Then, you can rip off any bit of him you want to."_

The tunnel opened up into a large cavern, dark, drippy and completely empty. Gaara walked inside the room slowly. In the tunnel behind him, a short rumbling preceded a deafening crash, as part of the ceiling caved in. Gaara glanced back at the rubble, expecting to see his opponent, but saw only the pile of rocks and debris that now blocked the tunnel.

"Lord Kazekage," the voice spoke softly, mockingly, in the cavern, as if relishing the moment. There was a rushing of sand- unfamiliar sand. Part of the stone of the cavern wall disintegrated into tiny grains of sand, flowing away to reveal a small enclosure, from which the enemy emerged.

"_Him?" _Shukaku exclaimed, rage momentarily forgotten in the face of its surprise. _"I was expecting someone older. This kid's barely past puberty!" _

Just a boy, a boy Gaara recognized, with rumpled dirt brown hair, and clothes that looked at though he'd slept in them for days. Though Gaara had had little reason to remember it in the past, the name at last rose to the surface of his memory- Tashimuru. The boy was a member of squad Shiten taught, gone missing the same time their jounin leader had. The chuunin that had seemed so nervous in the face of his Kazekage, that had delivered the first message, claiming Neji as their own.

He did not seem so nervous now. His eyes were bright and feverish, lit with a private madness that was consuming his mind. Sand- reddish brown sand, the same color as the tunnel walls- danced erratic, almost frenzied circles around the boy. Gaara hadn't known the boy used sand jutsu, but it did explain how these supposedly filled-in tunnels had been cleared again. The sand in Gaara's gourd- golden sands from the desert above- growled menacingly at their russet counterpart, as though furious it would dare serve a different master. The red sands danced on, oblivious to the menacing.

"Where is Neji?" Gaara demanded.

"Safe," said Tashimura. "Safe from you, forever and ever. You're never going to see him again, Lord Kazekage." He laughed, a high, psychotic giggle. "I'm going to kill you."

Gaara's sand howled as it rushed forward in a wave, crashing heavily against Tashimura's red wall of sand. Golden against russet, the sands crashed against each other, neither side giving ground. Grit filled the air, tiny particles that stung the skin, until it was hard to tell which sand belonged to whom. Gaara's sand battled seemingly of its own will, taking no visible direction from its master. Tashimura, however, had no mental control over his granular weapon; his hands flew through dozens of signs, producing more sand jutsu than Gaara was even aware existed. Though having to use learned jutsu instead of innate ability might seem a disadvantage, the red sand battled unceasingly, and the golden sands could not work past to strike at their master.

"I studied this particular strain of earth style jutsu, just for this moment," Tashimura's voice floated past the rushing drone of the sands' fury. "To see your face, when I kill you with your own technique!"

"_Release me!" _roared Shukaku. _"I will end this!"_

"_No!" _Gaara replied. _"Not yet…"_ Not unless there was no choice. Shukaku would bring down all the tunnels if he were released. Neji, wherever he was, might be crushed.

"Desert sand has a marvelous quality, as well," Tashimura said, chatting pleasantly, as if not in the midst of a battle. His hands moved through a long string of hand signs. "It has been worn down so fine and round, by wind and by time. When compacted, unlike beach sand, desert sand can actually hold water."

And at this, as if on cue, one of the cavern walls exploded outward, releasing in sudden expulsion all the power of the river it had been holding back.

_.x.x.x._

At last, with the most satisfying _crack_, the bulk of the plaster broke apart, and Neji had his hands free. Not that he thought they'd be much use, as the effort of breaking the plaster had left his hands sore and shaky, and the muscles in his arms strained. But now that he'd regained use of his hands, he could work on unchaining his feet.

His weaponry had been taken from him, of course, as well as any tool he might be able to use for lock picking. He gathered up the length of the chain in his hand, following it to its far end, where it was embedded within the stone floor. It, like the plaster that had encased his hands, seemed to hum with a strengthening chakra. If he had use of his byakugan, he would be able to find the weak points within the chain and break it within moments; as it was, testing each link one by one would take too long.

Echoing down the tunnels was the sound of crashing, of sand storms and rushing water. Somewhere in this underground labyrinth, a battle was being fought, over him. Somewhere, Gaara was fighting this madman, though Gaara as well was perhaps not at his sanest at the moment.

But this battle was as much Neji's as it was Gaara's. After everything that had happened, after everything that Neji had been put through and everyone that had suffered on Neji's behalf, he felt perhaps he had earned the right to a little vengeance of his own. Or at least to be present when said vengeance was administered.

And though the byakugan was temporarily out of commission, Neji was not helpless. A proper stance was somewhat difficult to assume with his feet chained together as they were, but Neji managed something similar enough that it would suffice. He hesitated only a moment as he listened to the distant echoes of roaring sand, before taking on the sudden and intense speed of his perfected rotation.

Chakra whirled outward from his body, and the chains tangled around his feet as he spun, though it didn't even slow him. The chain was ripped free from where it was embedded in the stone floor, the end clattering loudly against the wall. The pressure of chakra and momentum of the rotation stretched the links of the chain wrapped about his ankles, the very molecular structure of the metal becoming brittle under the abuse. When Neji came to a sudden stop, the chains around his legs were loose and crumbly, hardly fit to hold anyone prisoner any longer.

He smiled a little ruefully as he pulled away the broken chains, stepping free of their confinement. It was different, doing a rotation without the added benefit of the byakugan. He was reminded of when he was first learning the technique, as a very young child, when the first couple practices had actually made him dizzy.

Now unencumbered by either plaster casings or chains, Neji made his way through the underground passageways. It was easy to get lost, and he did, once or twice, but he focused on the sound of rushing sand, following it determinedly to its source.

_.x.x.x._

In the midst of a thundering rush of water, Gaara listened to it raging from within the protective confines of an orb of sand. With the entrance to the cavern blocked off by the cave-in of the tunnel's ceiling, the room was quickly filling with water. But the sand had quickly cocooned around Gaara, keeping him dry and safe from drowning. He could not hear Tashimura over the sound of the water, but he imagined the boy had a similar defense to protect himself.

"_He better have,"_ Shukaku commented. _"I'm going to be pissed if we came all this way to kill him, and he ends up drowning himself."_

Gaara said nothing to the demon in reply, but silently agreed. Tashimura was _his _prey. It was not enough that he should die; it had to be _Gaara _that would kill him.

The question of whether Tashimura lived was soon answered, however, as something heavy crashed against the outside of Gaara's sand shell. Gaara's protection did not falter, but the crashing continued; something heavy hammering at the shield, trying to bash it in with brute force.

"_The sand shield is not going to last forever,"_ Shukaku said. _"If he even breaks a hole in it, it'll fill with water and you'll drown. I think now would be a very good time to let me out."_

"No," Gaara said aloud. "I have more chakra than him, and I've controlled the sand longer than he's been alive. He will not break my defense."

"_Awfully confident for somebody trapped in a bubble,"_ said Shukaku. Then the demon paused, and Gaara could almost feel its sudden alertness. _"He's coming."_

_.x.x.x._

The sounds of sand and water were muted now, but Neji knew he must be on the right path. He made his way down one of the long corridors, and as he walked onward the ground became soft and soggy, damp sand squelching under his footsteps. Gaara was somewhere up ahead, and apparently his opponent used water jutsu. Neji wondered how well the sand was fairing against water.

He was sure he was going the right way, but he thought he ought to be able to hear more of the battle at this point, if indeed the battle was still going on. The lack of sound was soon explained, however, as the tunnel abruptly ended in a wall of rock and debris. Dead end. He would have to find another way, if there was one.

The accumulated rocks of the walls gave a sudden groan, shuddering as the settled, several spurts of water issuing forth from newly made cracks. Realizing the wall was not as solid as it had first seemed, Neji retreated, but not quickly enough. With another mournful groan, the wall shuddered again and collapsed, all the water it was holding back pouring out into the tunnel in a sudden flood.

The force of water under pressure knocked Neji into a wall, which he clung to as the river threatened to sweep him away in its current. These tunnels were not meant for channeling water, and Neji could feel the handholds he clung to becoming soft and spongy, threatening disintegrate under his hands. Just as he came loose from his hold and the water tried to seize him, he was caught and held fast by a thick coil of sand. It dragged him forward with a swift movement, drawing him into the confines of a shell of sand, which opened only briefly enough to pull him inside. Neji had only a moment to register that he was no longer caught up in the water's tide, but safe within the relatively dry sand cocoon.

And then Gaara was holding him, with the desperation of one finding something they'd feared was lost.

"Neji," Gaara said, the word spoken as softly as a sigh.

Neji's whole body relaxed of its own volition, suffused with the strangest peacefulness. He had found Gaara. Everything would be alright now.

There was an inarticulate shout from somewhere outside the sand shield, and there was the grating sound of tumbling rocks, as Tashimura used a jutsu to once more block off the path of the river into the cavern. As the water flowed out of the cavern through the passageway, the room was filled with the music of hundreds of water droplets dripping onto the draining lake on the floor. The heavy force pounding against the protective cocoon of sand resumed in force.

"Give him back!" Tashimura's shout echoed within the confines of the room. "You can't have him anymore, he's mine now! He's mine!"

"_MINE_!" The word echoed around the room in a voice that was pure animal. From so close, Neji could feel Gaara's chakra surge as Gaara shifted, and the sand collected over him. Gaara was transforming, becoming something more than Gaara, something demonic. Shukaku had at last found an outlet. The sand molded Gaara a new form, a beastly creature with teeth and claws, and a thirst for bloodshed. And a need, more desperate than anything, to claim and protect what was his.

The sand shield cracked and broke apart with hissing fury, though Neji was deposited safely on the ground with the utmost of care. The great bulk of Gaara's demonic form landed heavily on the ground, stomping forward to meet its opponent.

Tashimura was not afraid. Here, at last, was the proof of what he had always known, that the Kazekage was just a monster. An evil beast, bent on keeping Neji from him. Tashimura could see the sands coiling around Neji, imprisoning him once again. They were going to take Neji away again, to a place where he would be caged and tortured by this vile apparition of sand and fury. Tashimura had to save him.

"I will save him from you," Tashimura whispered. With quick hand gestures he formed his jutsu, and the red sands attacked.

Neji could not tell what was going on. The whole cavern was filled with the sounds of snarling, and sand smashing against sand. Holes were knocking in the walls, and stones came loose from the ceiling and crashed against the ground and the two fighters. Neji was protected from the raining debris, by the remains of the sand shield that danced around him, guarding him. Once again, he was nothing more than a bystander, waiting to see who the victor was. Waiting to see who would come to claim him in the end.

He had had enough of this. Enough of being helpless, of feeling useless. He needed to be able to fight in his own defense. What he wanted, more than anything, was to see.

With hasty, almost frantic motions, Neji ripped off the bandaged that covered his damaged eyes. The cavern had barely any light of its own, and to Neji's eyes it was nothing but shadows against shadows. Indistinct forms moved somewhere in the midst of it, as the battle continued, but Neji could not even tell which was which. Everything was dark and formless, a hopeless mess of shades and nothingness.

This might ruin his eyes forever, he knew. Or perhaps it was too late, and they were already beyond repair. It didn't really matter either way, Neji decided, so long as he could see just one last time.

He activated his byakugan, as he had several hundreds of times in the course of his life. The shadows coalesced, fighting to shape themselves into something recognizable. Neji could almost see the fighters now, the huge hulk of sand that formed around Gaara in the shape of Shukaku, and the gangly adolescent form of his opponent.

Within moments, the strain of holding the byakugan was too much for his injured eyes, and fierce pain set in once more. Headaches flared like lightning just behind his eyes, and tears trailed unceasingly down his cheeks. Still, he did not look away, did not close his eyes against the pain. The chakra flowed awkwardly, painfully, against broken and damaged channels, rubbing raw every pathway, scouring them clean.

Neji gasped softly for breath, as painful moments passed, and the indistinct images fought to focus. He could feel his eyes _changing_, as the fiery chakra of his byakugan burned away the scars, leaving fresh, fragile but undamaged tissue in its place. The chakra channels were forced open under unrelenting pressure. There was a sudden burst of sizzling agony, and Neji's vision flared white.

When at last it cleared… the byakugan snapped into perfect clarity.

Neji blinked, stunned by what he was seeing; that he _could_ see.

The battle had ceased in mid-motion, sands both golden and russet hanging in the air as though suspended in time. Both fighters were staring at Neji with wide eyes; he suspected he may have cried out or made some noise from the pain. The sand that formed Gaara's demonic shape melted slowly away, leaving Gaara only as Gaara. Neji was glad that Gaara was the first thing he saw upon regaining his vision. As the cliché went, a sight for sore eyes.

Tashimura sighed, a sound of blissful contentment. "Ah, Neji," he whispered. "You are so beautiful."

Neji's gaze flicked to him, and he stood up slowly. Gaara's sand hovered around him in wisps, as if unsure if he needed helping, but he waved it away. The battle was, for the moment, forgotten, as both Gaara and Tashimura watched Neji approach. Gaara's expression was guarded, though as Neji walked toward them, there was a flicker of something- hope?- in his eyes. Tashimura's expression was one of rapt adoration, as though his every dream had come true, his every wish granted. Neji's expression revealed nothing.

"_He can see?"_ Shukaku whispered, battle-lust forgotten, and sounding a little awed. _"The doctor said he might be blinded permanently. Not that I'm complaining or nothing, but how…?"_

"_The byakugan is a secret art, known only to the Hyuuga clan,"_ Gaara replied. _"And even to them, perhaps, the full extent of its working may be a mystery."_

Neji spared Gaara only the briefest of glances, before he walked past him. Tashimura stood still, as if rooted to the spot, though his eyes were wide and his body trembled. The burning intensity of the byakugan held him hypnotized, and he was helpless under Neji's gaze.

Neji stepped up close to Tashimura, his gaze locked to that of his captive's. Tashimura let out his breath, shaky with longing.

"At last, I can be with you," Tashimura whispered. "I love you, Neji."

Neji's byakugan regarded the boy with an icy calmness. It read the hope and madness in the boy's eyes, the erratic pulsating of his heart chasing the blood through his veins, the thrumming chakra speeding through shivering channels. All this Neji took in within a moment, before slamming an open-palmed chakra-laden strike to Tashimura's sternum.

"_Yeah!" _Shukaku cheered. _"That's my baby! I love it when he hurts people." _

Tashimura was knocked back, before he crumpled to the ground. He choked, coughing blood onto the damp sand of the floor. He looked up at Neji with confused, watery eyes. "Neji? I… I don't… understand…"

He cried out, as the sandy floor just beneath him became liquid, and he sank rapidly into it. Neji looked over at Gaara, who stepped up beside him, his own expression somewhat impassive, as he focused on burying his prey alive.

Tashimura struggled, clawing at the sand that he sank into, but finding no purchase. Within seconds, he was buried up to the neck, and the sand around him solidified harder than stone, holding him trapped and incapable of further movement. He writhed and whined, but could not escape.

Neji turned to leave, but was halted by Tashimura's desperate cry.

"Don't leave me!" he begged. "Neji! Please don't leave me. You would be happy with me, I swear. I will give you anything you could ever want!"

"I already have everything I want," Neji said, his gaze resting on Gaara, expression softening.

At that gentle smile, Gaara felt some of the rage, some of the emptiness leave him. He had Neji, and Neji loved him. "Shall I kill him for you, Neji?"

"Neji," Tashimura pleaded. "Don't!"

"Do as you will," Neji said to Gaara, walking for the exit. "He is nothing to me."

"Neji!" Tashimura screamed. _"Neji!"_

Neji didn't even look back, leaving Tashimura alone with the monster. "Neji…" Tashimura moaned. He coughed spasmodically, more blood staining the sands. Neji's strike had broken something inside him. "He… he's coming back…" he whispered. "He'll come back for me… Neji won't abandon me…"

Gaara's hand clenched into a fist, and the sand around Tashimura contracted sharply. Tashimura's scream filled the cavern as his bones were crushed. He spit out a spray of blood, his coughs coming out with gurgle. Pain wracked his entire body, more pain than he'd ever thought a person could live through. Black spots danced within his vision, and his mind was clouded with a red haze of agony.

"_Why didn't you kill him?"_ Shukaku demanded. _"Look at him there, so helpless. Practically begging us to squeeze his brain meats out his ears. Come on, kill him right!"_

Gaara watched his prey choke on his own blood, barely able to do more than whimper and quake. The boy's body was ruined, beyond repair. His lungs would be filling with blood, and he was likely to drown in it, if the shock did not kill him first. One way or another, he was going to die, in slow, lingering agony. It was almost enough.

"Neji loves me," Gaara said softly, irrefutably. "He always has. He always will. You are less than nothing to him. You don't even _exist_ to him."

Softly, Tashimura began to weep.

Gaara smiled, and turned to leave the cavern and its broken occupant. The sand hissed merrily in his wake, collecting into streamers and pouring itself back into the gourd, well satisfied with its work. Now, it was enough.

_.x.x.x._

Time passed in the cavern, an eternity, or barely a moment. He didn't know how long he was there. He drifted in and out of consciousness, in and out of agony. Sometimes he heard voices, sometimes droning in his ears, sometimes nothing but silence. In the darkness, he waited.

He looked up slowly when at last he heard footsteps. "Neji?" Tashimura whispered weakly.

"Sorry," Shiten said, walking with an even gait into the room. "Just me."

"Oh… Shiten…" Tashimura said. "I had… the worst dream. I dreamed Neji left me." He shook, eyes bright with fevered madness darting frantically around the room. "Neji… where is Neji?!"

"He's coming," Shiten promised softly. "He had to leave, but he's coming back. He'll be here soon."

"Oh, good." Tashimura relaxed, blinking at Shiten with eyes somewhat unfocused. "Shiten… does he… does Neji love me?"

Shiten said nothing to that.

"Shiten?" Tashimura prompted gently.

"Yes," Shiten said, not meeting Tashimura's gaze. "He loves you very much."

Tashimura smiled, weakly. "That makes me… so very happy."

"Goodnight, Tashi." Shiten's hand gently smoothed Tashimura's perpetually rumpled hair.

"Goodnight, Shiten." Tashimura closed his eyes.

With swift efficiency, Shiten snapped Tashimura's neck. Tashimura died, a smile still on his lips.

_.x.x.x._

Gaara found Neji waiting for him just outside the entrance to the tunnels, shielding his eyes from the brightness of the desert sun, admiring the bleak landscape. He smiled as Gaara came up to him. Gaara embraced him, holding him tightly to him, a silent vow to never let him go again. Neji held him as well, and Gaara felt the tension leaving them both. It was over.

"You don't have any _other_ stalkers around that I should know about, do you?" Gaara finally asked.

"Just you," Neji promised. "I seemed to recall a certain Kazekage starting a war with Konoha over me a few years back…"

"That's different," Gaara said. "You're _mine._"

"It looks that way," Neji agreed. "Gaara… let's go home now."

And so they did.

_.x.x.x._

_The End._


End file.
